BOSTON — All year long, when JD Davison was asked about his hopes of ending up with a standard NBA, he repeated one mantra: Be where your feet are.
“It’s not easy, man, especially playing in G League for three years,” Davison said ahead of the Celtics season finale on Sunday. “It’s not easy to stay the course… but I stayed the course.”
And, on Saturday afternoon, Davison was finally rewarded for a three-year G League career that saw him become the Maine Celtics’ leader in points, assists, and steals, win MVP, and even turn his Celtics teammates’ heads with his performances at training camp.
After he finished a workout on Saturday, general manager Brad Stevens called him and said the two needed to chat. He had seen the strides Davison had been making through this tenure with the organization since the moment he was drafted by the Celtics in 2022. At long last, the team was ready to offer him a contract.
“Hearing that from Brad, man, it’s a dream,” Davison said.
The second year of the contact includes a non-guaranteed team option, sources told CelticsBlog. But Davison isn’t worrying about next season — not right now. A moment he’s awaited for far too long has finally arrived.
The journey from a small-time Alabama town to the Boston Celtics
After Davison got the news, he phoned his mom, who was instantly overcome with emotions.
“I was like, ‘Mom, you crying?’” Davison said with a smile. “She was crying.”
“I know she’s been praying about it every day. I know she’s probably at church, praying about it, praying on my name.”
It didn’t always look like Davison was headed toward a full-time NBA deal. Despite three strong seasons in Maine, it was other guys who got those opportunities — last year, Neemias Queta’s two-way was converted to a fully guaranteed deal in the final days of the season.
But, Davison never lost faith. His hometown barely had indoor basketball courts — he learned to play the sport outside.
The journey to the pros came against all odds.
So, a dream delayed would not discourage him.
“I came from the bottom,” Davison said. “So just putting the work in and trying to get to get to the top… I’ve been playing basketball my whole life. So, just put in the work, and trusting God.”
Part of the faith stemmed from a basketball legend who came before him: NBA Hall of Famer Ben Wallace, who grew up in the area and played for Davison’s rival town. “Seeing him doing it, I was like, ‘Man’ — I just knew I could do it. But it wasn’t going to be easy. And it wasn’t.”
“I know she’s super proud. I know everyone back home is super proud, just knowing that I got them behind me telling me: ‘Keep going, it’s gonna be alright.’”
Davison signed a two-year deal with the Celtics this weekend, and sources told CelticsBlog that Davison’s two-year contract has a non-guaranteed team option in the second year. But, he’s not thinking about that second year just yet.
“To get a contract with the Boston Celtics, one of the best teams in the league, it’s not easy,” he said. “I got my head down, just put in the work, and I felt like it would came at one point, and it finally came.”
JD Davison caps a historic season with the ultimate accolade
Davison came into the year with a set of goals: win the G League MVP. Sign an NBA contract. Win a lot of games in Maine and help his teammates secure opportunities playing basketball, too.
He accomplished all of those things.
“I think just validation in the work and the patience and the time from the years that he’s been with us,” Joe Mazzulla said before Sunday’s game. “Obviously it’s easier to see the on-court development and how he’s gotten better, but I think he’s gotten better off the floor, as far as his leadership, his communication, his growth, his maturity, which, coming to the league at a young age, that’s something that’s going to be tested. “
“I just felt it was the right thing to do because of what he’s done for our program and what he’s done as a player and what he’s done as a person off the court. So, I’m really happy for him.”
After two years on a two-way contract with the Celtics, Davison could have gone elsewhere this past season. But, he never regretted the decision to return to the organization that drafted him this offseason.
“I never had no doubt. But I just knew — I think I put everybody on notice, as I would say, coming out of the G League, getting MVP, winning a lot of games, you don’t get [MVP] without winning a lot of games. So I think I put my head down, kept working my feet on it.”
And, anytime he was asked by reporters about his aspirations to convert the two-way deal to a standard one, he always had the same answer.
Be where your feet are.
“It helped me, being in the moment in the G League, and not looking forward to where I wanted to be — just trying to stay down, just keep going.”
On Friday night, Davison threw down an emphatic dunk in the game’s final minutes. Then, he pointed at Xavier Tillman on the bench.
“Some of those guys in the locker room don’t think I can really jump, so I really have to show them that,” Davison said jokingly. “Especially X — he don’t think I can jump. So I had to show him what I can do!”
Sitting just a few feet away at his locker, Xavier Tillman grinned and sarcastically exclaimed, “Woooow.”
Davison is aware that going from the G League to the NBA will be an adjustment. The speed and physicality of the big leagues stand out the most. There’s also just getting comfortable and accepting that not every play will go his way.
“I’m just trying to just be me, honestly — not think about mistakes.”
There’s also the fact that he’ll be sharing the court with plenty of other ballhandlers and primary initiators in Boston.
“In Maine, I had the ball in my hand a lot,” he said. “You have to just adjust to that, being in the corner — but still just be me.”
For now, he’s not thinking too far ahead — not to next year, not to anything beyond today.
He’s relishing that a dream a lifetime in the making has finally been achieved.
“The prayers work.”
